"So Brother Lin just thinks that the future is a problem, in fact, you don't have to care, at least for a few decades, China is still in a rising period, as long as you work hard, there will always be a chance for promotion."

Lin Zhiji is actually in a dilemma, he has been educated since he was a child, and the person in front of him is a living thief, in the eyes of readers, for this kind of person, he can promise to regret killing him, he can be lured to surrender, but he just can't be treated equally.

But now that people have entered the imperial capital, I heard that they have gained a firm foothold, at least they have subdued the tartars, not to mention anything else, a large number of woolen fabrics have flowed into Jiangnan through trade routes, in fact, the sweater worn by Lin Zhiji is the masterpiece of the imperial capital woolen factory, and learning to knit sweaters has gradually become a skill point that everyone in Jiangnan must learn, according to what Li Xiangqian knows, in fact, they are too idle.

As stated in the most classic economic works, human society is built from production and consumption, from the initial primitive society, there was no private property, eh, at that time, it is estimated that people are also simple, and later, gradually there are markets, towns, and cities.

And all over the country, if you want to connect with each other, relying only on the power of the law or the clan, it has never been very pale.

During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, many ministers were actually branches of a family, but this kind of branch only needed two or three generations, so they were more ruthless than outsiders when they fought each other.

Why? Because the more your own people know what cards you are going to play next, you must not hurry up to kill you before you shoot.

Relying only on trade routes, trade means that countless people need people from outside to eat, even in the Three Kingdoms era, the three have already been emperors, but Shu Jin can still pass through the two enemy countries and earn a lot of military spending.

Of course, this is not without harm, the more developed the trade routes, the more concentrated the wealth, the more likely it is to cause problems.

There are always people who like to pay not much, do not have to get up early and be greedy, but lie there comfortably every day to earn money, well, here, the corrupt officials who hold power are similar to the bankers of later generations, they belong to the drought and flood to ensure income, and they will never be afraid.

Lin Zhiji said: "It's just that if you become an official, you will harm the people, and I can't do it, so I also ask the adults to open up the net and give the people of Jiangnan a way to live." ”

Li Xiangqian said: "I have a favorite movie, eh, the movie is a kind of movie we like, you can go to the north to see it, there is a person in it, like to say such a mantra, you choose, if there is a broad road, but refuse to go, but take the small road with one mind, then I have to say sorry." ”

Lin Zhiji said: "I'm okay in Jiangyin, in the past two years, in order to increase the number of troops to guard against adults, various places have increased a lot of taxes. ”

"Haha, you're wrong, at least in Nanjing, no one thinks they can withstand us, not to mention some weapons we can use, let's just say that ordinary troops are working hard, and those newly recruited soldiers can't even hold guns steadily, obviously just to suppress the people's rebellion."

Lin Zhiji immediately shook his head and said, "I don't dare, student. ”

"How can it be a question of whether you dare or not, since you are in the bureau, I can't help you, let me ask you, it is your subordinate servants who are sent to collect taxes, at least under your banner."

"Yes."

"Even Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty knows that these servants go to the countryside, they will harm the people and make trouble, and take the opportunity to eat and take cards, so it is stipulated that there is no serious matter, and they are not allowed to go to the countryside, unless there is a big case, or tax collection, there is a county order to send people, right?"

Lin Zhiji said: "Emperor Taizu is naturally thoughtful when he thinks about things. ”

"Thoughtful, maybe it's just a lack of productivity at the time."

Li Xiangqian said: "This has caused a problem, according to the situation, the officials will pick the fat and thin, not to mention, hand over one tael, and keep one tael for themselves, it is not impossible." ”

"This ......"

"How do you care, people are doing things in this county for generations, although all kinds of discrimination against others, even the imperial examination is not allowed, but it can't stand people from coming to trouble, you can't drive people away, let you, the empty county order, go door-to-door to collect taxes, or he comes back to report you, Lin County Order, I found a murderer at the gate of the city, do you want to kill him."

Lin Zhiji almost laughed, but he was amused by Li Xiangqian.

"The tax system is unreasonable, naturally it is necessary to reform, this time, I also cut some of it, however, for the reform, we are necessary, at least, we have even canceled the land tax, and in the future we will only rely on commercial taxes, even if Confucianism can reverse black and white and refer to the deer as a horse, it is impossible to make a fuss here."

Lin Zhiji's family also opened a shop, and immediately said: "I'm afraid I can't afford this." ”

Li Xiangqian smiled and said, "That's because you haven't seen the power of the modern enterprise system." ”

If nothing else, the Dutch and British East India Company led almost the entire human civilization in terms of making profits, and without these companies, we may not be able to play with computers and brush > todayLi Xiangqian slowly explained: "Merchants sit on Jia Xiaoben traders, what they are doing is nothing more than needles, threads, brains, silk and linen cloth and other transactions related to the people's livelihood, Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang explicitly exempted books, pen and ink farm tools, boat cars and silk cloth and other tax rates, and issued an edict to marry and mourn the things of the funeral, boats, cars and silk cloth, etc., are not taxed, his son Zhu Di once again reiterated the principle of tax exemption for goods such as people's livelihood, and ordered to marry and mourn seasonal gifts, self-woven cloth, agricultural tools, food and buy taxed things, vehicles and ships to transport their own goods, fish, vegetables and fruits are not market sellers, All are tax-exempt. ”

Lin Zhiji seemed to be very moved, this person still knows something.

Li Xiangqian continued: "The ancient Chinese dynasty implemented the policy of heavy agriculture and suppression of commerce, which came from the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, when the countries were at war, paying attention to farming warfare, and commerce was suppressed, which was very normal, but the world was unified, and it was simply a paradox to crack down on commerce, the Europa people in the West practiced mercantilism, and the national tax revenue mainly came from merchants, and China practiced heavy agriculture, but to extract the most material resources from the peasants. ”

Although his face changed, Lin Zhiji knew that the north did collect taxes like this, what value-added tax, turnover tax, and they were very happy, but the environment was relaxed, the public security was good, and the businessmen were willing to do business.

Lin Zhiji said: "When it comes to trade, salt and iron are inseparable. ”

Although Lin Zhiji is a jinshi, he also has some research on the way of management and national policies.

"State monopolies and liberalism."

The Theory of Salt and Iron is a very amazing work on economics.

It describes a great debate on politics, economy, military, diplomacy, and culture under a salt and iron conference during the period of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, and the core of the debate is the dispute between state-run monopoly and free economy advocated by the head of Sang Hongyang.

Although he came from later generations, Li Xiangqian still has some understanding of this book, and he himself comes from a state-owned enterprise, but he knows that state monopoly has its problems, and liberalism also has its problems.

Monopoly will lead to laziness and lack of progress, just as the world's most powerful company in later generations, it is the tobacco group of the Celestial Empire, which is domineering and leaks to support a large amount of profits paid every year.

Liberalism will be unscrupulous, don't expect any free competition to bring about price drops and quality improvements, just like movies, instead of spending energy to make good movies, it is better to directly brush the traffic and let the despicable spicy your eyes.

Li Xiangqian said: "Actually, this is a problem of tax cost. ”

Lin Zhiji was stunned for a moment and said, "Cost? ”

"Sending people to the countryside to collect taxes, what did this lead to? Half of the money can't reach the hands of the imperial court, right, and with the salt tax, everyone has to collect taxes every day, a person probably eats three or four catties of salt a year, which is about the same, a pound of salt is enough as a tax, compared to paying taxes at the door, the benefits of salt tax lie in this, in the same way, or fuel tax, consumption tax, are all this idea. ”

Lin Zhiji blinked and said, "Elder, what is the fuel tax?" ”

"Ah, what did I say, by the way, the salt and iron theory itself is a very low-cost way to collect taxes, and today, as far as I know, last year, the salt tax did not exceed one million."

Lin Zhiji smiled bitterly and said, "The soldiers are in chaos, and the merchants are afraid that it will not be easy. ”

"At the same time, the number of young girls bought by Yangzhou salt merchants has tripled, but the price has been reduced by half, which is not fun, it is really not fun."

The so-called salt and iron monopoly, the history is very long, the Spring and Autumn Period Qi State Prime Minister Guan Zhong launched the monopoly system, the ancient name "Guanshan Hai", the iron on the mountain, the salt in the sea, are bought and sold by the state set up institutions, both of these are necessities, so the control of the trade of these two commodities, the profits are extremely lucrative, only a small amount of manpower input, and the difficulty of supervision is also low.

In the Ming Dynasty, as well as in the Qing Dynasty, the shadow of the monopoly system still exists, such as the salt ticket system, although it is the salt merchants who sell official salt, but the government controls the scale of their trading through the salt ticket system, and also collects a high salt tax from it, so that the salt tax has even become the main tax in the Ming and Qing dynasties, second only to the agricultural tax. Even in later generations, China's tobacco industry still used this monopoly system.

But why can't it be run by government now? The monopoly system looked so good, but later dynasties abolished it.

In the era of Guan Zhong, the monopoly of salt and iron was indeed a creative system, because at that time, whether it was boiling salt or making iron, it was still in the initial stage, and ordinary merchants and ordinary people did not have the technology and capital.

But later, the development of private capital and technology has allowed private individuals to operate these industries, but various drawbacks of government-run workshops have frequently appeared, corruption can not be broken, quality is difficult to guarantee, etc., so that later dynasties gave up the special system, the Ming Dynasty began to indirectly manage salt merchants in the form of salt stamps, etc., and the taxes collected from them are more generous than the direct operation of the government itself. Far inferior to businessmen with stronger business skills.

There is even a wine and tea monopoly, the monopoly of wine has also appeared in history, the Song Dynasty in order to solve the financial problems, has implemented a long time of wine monopoly system, it is said that at that time officials around the country in order to sell the inferior wine brewed by the official workshop, it can be said that they tried their best, such as the great literati Su Dongpo when he was an official in Jiangnan, whenever the new wine came out of the pot, he mobilized the women of the Qinglou to sell on the street, and for a time the warbler Yanyan was very lively. The government also used its power to show down with merchants such as restaurants, tea shops and even hotels, so that they had to sell the government's liquor.

Most of the books read by Chinese literati are Confucian classics, which teach people how to behave as human beings and belong to the category of morality, and there are very few professional and academic classics, and literati rarely dabble in them, so their knowledge of economics is limited to the realm of common sense.

It is very rare for Confucian scholars with a little conscience to realize that the taxation of merchants is actually passed on to the common people in the end, at least they have touched the concept of the economic chain, and know that the economy is a chain, and starting from any one of them will have an impact on the others.

However, from a professional point of view, this impact is long-term, and the conductivity cannot be released in the short term. Therefore, the most advantageous way to increase tax revenues is to introduce new taxes from a technical point of view. When there are too many types of taxes that affect the cost of taxation, then there will be a reduction, and it will be called reform, and the taxation method in Hong Kong will be very streamlined in later generations, known as the simple tax system, which has inspired many countries to have a popular reform of combining taxes and simplifying the taxation scheme.

The reason why Li Xiangqian bypassed Yangzhou this time and went directly to Jiangyin was that he contributed to the killing of the propaganda team, and secondly, he was still ready to kill those salt merchants after they cooled down.

They have a huge production capacity and terrible transportation capacity, and they are really in a hurry, and if they let go of transportation, they can beat the salt merchants in Jiangnan to death.

But punishing the former and saving people is not to say, in the end, it is the essence of hundreds of years of cultivation, if one of the hundred Jiangnan businessmen, one comes back to taste, it is also a great good thing.

Again, the science fiction of this base in later generations is about conquering people's hearts, and it lies in the idea of trade armed with science and technology.

Li Xiangqian's purpose of imposing a universal commercial tax is also a deep consideration, that is, he has always intended to fundamentally reorganize the organization of Chinese society.

In fact, the organization of Chinese society was not formed in a day, and the historical context in it, even if it is irrational, has its own reason for existence.

The big family can bully the small family and not be bullied, so the clan will naturally start.

There are also widows who can't get married, this kind of thing is not a Chinese tradition.

(End of chapter)